Phumzile Van Damme Resigns As A DA MP and Party Member

Phumzile Van Damme Resigns As A DA MP and Party Member. The DA once again loses one of its prominent leaders. In 2019, Mmusi Maimane resigned after four years as a leader of the Democratic Alliance party. Maimane resigned a day after former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba called it quits

Another black leader in the party has resigned. Phumzile Van Damme is no longer a member of the Democratic Alliance nor its representative in Parliament. She took to social media where she put out a statement announcing her resignation. Van Damme said she was leaving on her own terms. Her departure was later confirmed by DA spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube.

In her statement, Van Damme said that she will not be joining another party nor will she be “attacking” the party. She had announced earlier in May that she was in a legal battle with the DA, with some party members determined on punishing her for punching a man in self-defense after he threatened violence during an altercation at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town in June 2018.

Van Damme was first elected as a Member of the Parliament of South Africa in 2014. At 31, she was one of the youngest MPs to be elected to the National Assembly. In the same year, she was appointed the National Spokesperson of South Africa’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance. She was re-elected as a Member of Parliament in May 2019, and subsequently elected a National Assembly Whip.

Before her election to Parliament Van Damme worked as the Democratic Alliance’s Head of Research and Communications, leading a team of media officers managing communications and research for over 100 MPs. She held various other positions as a political staffer and in 2012 served as the Spokesperson of the now Premier of the Western Cape Alan Winde in his role as the then Minister of Tourism and Economic Development.